Little of This, Little of That

Wow! Having a blog is a good way to realize how fast the time flies. It felt like only a couple days ago that I last posted, but when I looked at the date I realized it was already a week ago!

Hmmmm. What have we been doing?

Here's some photos to bring you up to speed. :o)

I was excited when I actually caught this face in a photograph, as I have tried many times to do so! This is Haddie's "Rocker Face". One of Seth and Haddie's favorite activities is to turn on music and dance in the kitchen. We've done a lot of dancing lately (trying to stay active when it's too cold to be outside!) Seth has some great moves too. I'll have to try to capture some of them. (Haddie's Rocker Face is most commonly seen during "Rock Monster" a Veggie Tales song.) :o)

Recently we said good bye to my great-grandmother, Flora. She passed away at the age of 93 (in fact she was born in Holland and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was young). It is sad to know that she is gone from this Earth, and we'll miss her greatly. There is much to be thankful for though. She lived a long life and was quite healthy. Most importantly, Flora trusted in Jesus Christ as her Savior. She had no doubts about where she was going to spend eternity. Ingrained in my mind are numerous memories of Flora taking my hand in hers, looking in my eyes, and saying,"Natalie, I am praying for you. I'm praying for all of you." We knew she was too. Even when she became so old that she couldn't remember faces, she still kept a list of all her children and their families, and she prayed for each person by name. It will be so cool one day when we are in Heaven together, to perhaps find out the effects of all those faithful prayers!

Here is Haddie (and I) last spring with Flora, her great-great grandmother! It was pretty neat that Seth and Haddie both got to meet her. Side note: Flora was especially fond of Steve. Though he married into the family and only met her a handful of times, Flora remembered him well - even when she didn't remember me anymore! She was proud of her great-grandson-in-law, "the pastor". ;o)

Yay for a beautiful day enabling us to play outside! Here's Seth getting pulled around the block in the sled.

Here's Haddie girl. She and I had a little girl time one night when Steve took Seth to a game in town.

This is actually from last month. We stayed in a hotel and the kids had a BLAST in the pool. This photo reminds me so much of being little and the excitement of going swimming!

At the hotel that night. "Ok hon, the kids are ready for bed!"

Hooray for more and more moments of Seth and Haddie getting along! True, they are simply watching a video here, but they are laying peacefully next to each other none the less!

Recently a bunch of relatives had fun bowling together. Here is Daniel, Caleb, and Jake (Seth and Haddie's cousins) beside our kiddos.

I got a kick out of the tiny bowling shoes they had for Seth and Caleb!

Here's Seth at the bowling alley... cooling off his face with the hand dryer thing (what's the correct name for it??) He he!